Bulgarian Collections

British Library Slavonic and East European Collections

The British Library Slavonic and East European Section acquires material across the spectrum of the humanities and social sciences. It is responsible for obtaining and making available material published in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and for material in the languages of those countries published anywhere in the world. This page provides an overview of the Bulgarian Collections, illustrated by specific examples.
Copyright © 1997, The British Library Board "The Royal portrait: Tsar Ivan Alexander and his family", from The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, Ekaterina Dimitrova (London: British Library, 1994) [YC.1995.b.3420]

Contents

An overview of the Bulgarian Collections | Catalogues, printed guides and other resources | Bulgarian material elsewhere in the British Library | Further information

Collections

In the following text, codes which appear in brackets after references [2725.g.1675] indicate British Library shelfmarks.

The exact size of the Bulgarian holdings is not known, since, like other country/language holdings, they have no separate catalogue and are dispersed within the rest of the collections. There are over 10,200 titles in Bulgarian in the H&SS Current Catalogue (which covers items acquired since 1975). The Bulgarian Collections are strong in most of the fields in the humanities and social sciences. The collections comprise unique research material, primarily on the history and culture of the Bulgarian people from the late 16th century to the present.

There are several good examples of early written manuscripts in Church Slavonic script (held in the British Library Manuscript Collections), which was very close to the language used in early Bulgarian literature (Old Bulgarian). The most famous and the best preserved manuscript in the British Library's collections is Gospel of Tsar Ivan Alexander or Tetraevangelia written in 1355 [Additional Manuscripts 39627].

After the Turkish invasion (1393), literary life in Bulgaria was confined to monasteries where chronicles were written and old texts copied. Printing in Bulgaria came relatively late. In the 17th and 18th centuries, most books and newspapers were published in adjoining countries, not in Bulgaria itself.

Bulgarian history is well represented in the British Library collections, the principal categories of which are: general history of the South Slavs; the first Bulgarian Empire (681-1018); the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1393); Bulgaria under Ottoman rule; the National Revival; the Eastern Question; the period of liberation to the end of World War I; Bulgaria during World War II (1941-44); Bulgaria under Communism; Bulgaria after the 1980s.

In the past few years, exchange relations with Bulgarian libraries have improved, facilitating the acquisition of current materials documenting contemporary culture and politics. Special attention has been devoted to the problems of democratic changes in Bulgaria from 1989 onwards, and to the acquisition of previously forbidden books, newspapers, journals and other publications on, among other things, the new political parties, ethnic conflict and economic reform. The Library aims to collect all important works in Bulgarian which deal with foreign relations with the neighboring states of Macedonia, Turkey, Greece and the countries of the Former Yugoslavia.

Catalogues, printed guides and other resources

Catalogues and printed guides

• Church Slavonic entries from the British Library General Catalogue [prepared by Brad Sabin Hill] (London: The British Library, 1992) [2725.g.1675]
• Dimitrova, Ekaterina. The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander (London: The British Library, 1994) [YC.1995.b.3420]

Other resources

• Bulgarian internet resources
• South-East European studies: reference sources
• Index to the Slavonic and East European pages
• Integrated Catalogue
• Union list of Slavonic and East European newspapers in British libraries

Bulgarian material available elsewhere in the British Library

• Manuscripts are held by Manuscript Collections
• Newspaper holdings are held in the Newspaper Library at Colindale
• Official and government publications are held at the Social Policy Information Service (SPIS)
• Social sciences and scientific serials and conference proceedings are available from the Document Supply service
• Scientific monographs are held by Science Technology and Business (STB)
• Audio materials are held by the Sound Archive
• Other Slavonic material is held in the Map, Music and Philatelic Collections

Further information

For further information on the Bulgarian Collections, please contact Milan Grba:

Slavonic and East European Collections
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
e-mail: slavonic@bl.uk